Leading a successful healthcare practice is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do! I had to learn on the job, through my own experiences (the good, the bad and ugly), read lots and lots of books and sought advice from my peers and business coaching / mentoring from the best our industry has to offer. Ultimately, the shift from being a podiatry business owner to a business leader is huge. The transition has been logical, emotional (hell yeah) and a natural progression for me.
In my eyes the qualities of a great leader are to enable their team to become leaders. As one of my amazing coaches says “there is no room for ego, and less is more!”. As a leader you should take full responsibility for what’s going on in your business, this includes the results and results do not lie. When there are complications or difficulties it’s much easier to shame, blame and justify it to our team, rather than face it head on. Unfortunately, we have all seen this behavior, you need to recognise and change it!
Leadership I feel, it comes hand in hand with experience and how you choose to react to things going on around you. For example, are you always seeing the problems rather than the solutions / positives in what’s happening around you? Personally, part of my leadership role going forwards is to be creative and innovative, inspire and positively challenge my team. Also, to push me and my team outside of our comfort zones for continued growth.
Culture in the work place, starts with the leader and escalates down. As Peter Drucker says “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Poor culture can be damaging to the team, business and this transcends to the service our clients receive. The leader’s behavior is an example of how business is done, and gives others the green light, to do the same. If the fish stinks from the head down this is well and truly due to poor leadership and culture.
My team want to be believed in, trusted, invested in and they have the permission to behave in a creative mentality and hold true to our team values and why. This blog is just the tip of the iceberg in what leadership is and its meaning to you / our industry. It’s been one of the most rewarding aspects that I have worked on and will continue to do so. I encourage you to do the same.
Here is some homework to find your answers to these questions! Are you prepared to own your challenges? What type of team leader are you? And what type do you want to be? How are you going to achieve this? You will find these questions will feed into what you actually want from your business, your core WHY / values and in the long run, what makes you tick.
Margaret Trevillion MSC BSC Hons MChS
Director
Walk This Way Healthcare